A new study, performed by the scientists from Aarhus University, Denmark, and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, discovers that newborn babies with vitamin D deficiency are at higher risk of developing schizophrenia later in life.

For the study, the team of researchers analyzed data on vitamin D levels in the blood of 2,602 people based in Denmark. They were born between 1981 and 2000.

The analysis showed that people who were born with lower levels vitamin D levels were 44% more likely to develop the condition later on.

Lead study author Prof. McGrath explains: “We hypothesized that low vitamin D levels in pregnant women due to a lack of sun exposure during winter months might underlie this risk, and [we] investigated the association between vitamin D deficiency and risk of schizophrenia.”

Researchers from the US developed a method for diagnosing schizophrenia. A report about their work can be found in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Scientists offer diagnosising chizophrenia to pay attention to oxidative stress – cell damage due to oxidation.
In their view, this mechanism is closely associated with many diseases, including schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

The new approach has been tested on a cohort of patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. As a result, researchers were able to correctly separate the blood samples of sick people from healthy one. For the detection of oxidative stress they used iridium salt as for the evaluation of the process in the food products.
The researchers hope that their technique will be used for the diagnosis of schizophrenia: the sooner the disease is found, the more successful it is treated. Now the diagnosis is sometimes stretched for a year.

A new research from University of Manchester suggests that regular exercising might help ease some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, among which are hearing voices, paranoia, lack of concentration.

A team of researchers conducted a systematic meta analysis of 10 independent clinical trials that included 385 patients with the condition. These trials compared people who participated in physical activities involving aerobic exercises such as treadmill workouts, cycling, and interactive video games with control group participants who received conventional schizophrenia treatment or played table football or received occupational therapy.

The scientists discovered that nearly 12 weeks of aerobic exercises could help boost brain cognition. The authors of the study report that greater amount of regular exercising were associated with larger improvements in brain health.